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double stop

There are lots of places to learn about harmonics; all of the books have little blurbs on them and there are plenty of guides online. They all say that you can do this or that, but they all seem to talk about things in isolation, as if the only time you play a harmonic is as a whole note with a rest before and after it. It is very similar to the information, or lack thereof, on double stops. In fact there are many similarities…Read More

The double stop is the most misunderstood (by orchestrators) and ignored (by players) orchestration device EVER! I know that is a bold statement, but after many years observing the orchestra from the podium and seeing what they play and what they don't, I can say it with assurance. Keep in mind, we are talking about writing for the orchestra here, not for soloists or chamber music. There are three things you need to think about before you decide that you need to write a double…Read More

There are five sections in the string orchestra, playing five parts, but quite often we need more than five notes at once. There are two ways to get the extra notes, use double stops or divide sections, divisi. In 90% of situations you should choose to divide. There are issues with double stops that I will explain in the next article. So how does the string section divide? The default behavior is to divide on the stand. This is also called 'inside/outside' as the outside…Read More